Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased Demona, my female MBK from a breeder this September at the Sacramento Reptile Expo. I have only owned Cornsnakes up until this point so I did some research on MBKs before purchasing her. She's a great eater, I feed her a f/t mouse pinkie every 7 days (the past two weeks I've fed her 2). She's around a foot long and still under a year old but I feel like she should have shed at least once since I've gotten her... It's been about 3 months. She's housed in a standard sized aquarium currently (10 gallon I think?) kept at the appropriate temp. She does rub her head against the sides sometimes when she's out exploring so she's starting to get a nose rub and that's what started my concerns about her not shedding. Does she need a bigger enclosure? Am I not feeding her enough? What am I doing wrong?

Kings can shed from 1 to 12 times in a year, Of course normal is in the middle of that.
The question your asking is more about signs of your snake doing well Or poorly, for that matter.
A sign its doing well is feeding. How well it feeds and processes food is without question a sign of how good its conditions are. Baby kings can feed and pass food daily, if kept properly. Which means if your conditions are right, your snake could be starving and that could be a reason its rubbing its nose(wants out)
When a snake is rubbing it's nose, its telling you something is wrong. And seriously wrong. Remember, they feel pain and it hurts to rub their nose. Glass tanks can work well or can be a real problem. Without knowing how yours is set up, it would be a waste of time to go on and on. But, your snake is feeding, so its not THAT bad.
Something to consider, all snakes want, require and seek, a HOME shelter. NOT a hide. A shelter is a deep dark place secure from precieved predators, the right temps and humidity and feel. And it must be tight. The most important thing in your snakes life is a shelter. It would be the same in nature. So think about that. Research this, where would that snake be, if it wasn't in your box? Best wishes

Perhaps I have to adjust the humidity in her enclosure and get a better hide for her. I'll adjust accordingly as I feel awful if I'm causing her stress and didn't realize it. Will it be safe to continue to feed her 2 pinkies every 7 days? Or even one pinkie every 3-4 days? She is eating fine and pooping often so at least that's a good sign of something. Thank you for your response, raising the MBK is a little bit of a different experience than my corns even after all the research I've done on them.

Hi there!

I have 2 MBKs they are really neat and really calm once there requirements are met.

My advice is put at least 6-8 inches of dirt from outside. just make sure the snake is healthy and strong enough to not get a infection from the nose rub. Do Not use potting soil in a bag, that stuff has too many chemicals. Dirt from out side or coco substrate mixed with play sand. Put a layer of leaves on that aswell.

The snakes will dig holes in there and have there own home in no time. they will come up to the surface when feeding time happens and sometimes they will coil up under the leaves very deliberately. They are great snakes! Good luck and post some pics we won't judge you personally here!

About feeding, when snakes feed daily or almost daily, they raise their metabolism and become very active.(if they have temp choices) If they are feed less often, they lower their metabolism and become less active. This is how reptiles work in nature. And why they can compete with mammals. They can conserve energy when conditions are poor and mammals cannot. You as the keeper, you have a choice. You can keep them at the top end of their abilities, or the bottom end, or anywhere in between.
This stuff about once a week as nothing to do with the snakes. Its all and only about people. That snake of yours, if in nature, feeds as much as it can when food is available. Daily for periods of time. In nature food is not plentiful over long periods and super plentiful for shorter periods. So they take advantage of both. Feeding daily when its plentiful, less often when its not and stop feeding when food is not available(winter in most cases)pt1

The fastest growing king I ever raised, went from hatchling, to 38 inches in less then a year. It was a very funny event. I fed it almost everyday. I had a snake room and its cage was by the door. As soon as I came in the room, it came to the front of the cage a begged for food. So as is my nature, I fed it. But then it was not the only one.
About six months in, I said to my wife, that king by the door is growing was faster then all the others, how weird. She said, well it should, I feed it everyday. WHAT!!!!!!! I feed it daily as well, the dang snake was eating twice a day. hahahahahahahaha.
How I came about this was back in 1962 I believe. I worked at a pet shop(summer job) and sold this lady a baby cal king. I also sold her the cage etc. Remember, I was just a kid. She asked how to keep it and I said, keep it warm and feed it. Well about 8 months go by and she comes in with this beautiful adult cal king. I asked where did you get that. She said, its the one you sold me. I freaked out and asked, what did you do? she said, I did what you said, I kept it warm and fed it. Hmmmmmmmmmmm she broke all the rules. Or did she open the door to new rules? Well that was a long time ago. I have taken that approach to torts, turtles, snakes, lizards, boas, pythons, etc and it has worked exceptionally well with all those species. And all from that innocent wonderful lady. By the way, I captive bred my first kings that year.
These days, you can goggle up(research????) anything, but you cannot goggle up context. Mostly what gets written is average. The problem with average is, the average wild snake DIES, its the exceptional individual that matures and lives. Science has screwed that up(to quantify) and so do keepers. Every one talks about keeping their animals the best, and actually keep them average or less then average. Its so easy today to learn to supply basic needs, That should allow you to support your animals to their full potential. Sorry for the rant.

^^^the cleaning of that cage must have been a nightmare...

The way I keep my snakes is like dart frog keepers. Except my plants die with the snakes. But the soil will eat some of the waste.

My buddy is a carpenter and a boa guy, really nice guy and he is planning to build a few rodent racks for me when we get some free time this year. I will try the feed any time it eats schedule.

There are always problems, but I would rather clean cages then hold back a snakes progress. Remember, available heat is important. With snakes its easy, They only need a small hot spot. And they will use either or both, under tank heating, or a small lite on one end of the cage.
Whats actually odd about this is, I have forty year old mouse cages. WHAT The HECK.

I have to chime in here when I see people feeding a kingsnake pinkies only ones per sweek.

First of all take FR advice. He is on the money and what he said about available info on the internet is true.

IMO you are not feeding the snake enough. Not by a maile. If you have a temp gradient (hot and cold sides) the snake can eat and digest properly.

Feeding a neonate a small pinky (I assume it is neonate size still since it is still feeding on pinkies one per week) should only be temporary. In other words you should offer larger size mice or feed many pinkies per week. The snake wants to grow and if you don't it will stay small. Which is not healthy.
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FR quote:
"Doing the same things over and over expecting to learn something else, is the definition of insanity"

I have fuzzies available, I was mostly afraid they would be too large for her to actually get down. I'm perfectly fine with feeding her more or more often if need be, I just didn't realize that kingsnakes eat and grow a bit differently than the corns I raised. I guess it was dumb of me to expect them to be the same now that I know that kings are voracious eaters and poopers compared to some colubrids. Thank you everyone for the advice, I'll be upping her food intake from here on out.

Corns are no different, in fact if anything grow faster. Here's the thing. You are doing what worked for you. But that does not mean its the only way. As you learn to be successful, you can then learn to be more successful.
Think about this, baby snakes are food for everything, insects, toads, birds, lizards, other snakes, mammals, etc. They want to grow as fast as they can. The longer they are small, the lower the changes of ever becoming an adult. Consider, 98% of all neonates, do not make it to adult size. Only the lucky ones that found enough food to out grow the neonate stage, make it. The saying only the strong survive, is a bit off. It may be true over the long period, thousands of years. On a year to year basis, its more about the lucky ones who make it. The ones that happen to land in the right conditions.
To be accurate, in your conditions that's what your cornsnakes did. That is true. But, under my conditions that same cornsnakes would have grown much faster. In nature, the lucky ones, grow even faster then mine. Please understand, its not anything against you, your at a stage where you can go to the next level of understanding, or not. Either way, you do seem to care and that is what is important.
An example, I had a wild free roaming snake come to my building and eat 4 to 6 mice, 16 days in a row. hmmmmmmmmmmmm and it did it by its own accord. And this type feeding occurred with many species. Best wishes

These guys advising you are absolutely correct. You can grow a a baby corn (or king, bullsnake, etc.) to adulthood in 12 months.
Get that baby on fuzzies then hoppers as soon as you can. Then the growth will blow your socks off. It is almost impossible to over feed a growing colubrid. (I say almost, cause if you really worked at it, you maybe could!) Corns especially are designed to eat relatively large prey. Get a copy of Kathy Loves cornsnake book. There is a photo of a corn that successfully ate a rodent which appeared to weigh the same as the snake. I truly believe that those pet stores that advise feeding pinkies at a substandard rate do so to make more $$. Pinkies are relatively expensive, but easy to produce.
A growing, thriving MBK can shed monthly for the first year.